Camilla: I was prisoner in my own home after Prince Charles affair exposed

The Duchess of Cornwall has spoken publicly for the first time about the anguish she suffered when her affair with Prince Charles was revealed.

In a rare interview, she told the Mail on Sunday how she became a prisoner in her own home due to public animosity towards her.

"It was horrid. It was a deeply unpleasant time and I wouldn’t want to put my worst enemy through it," she said.

"But the children came and went as normal – they just got on with it – and so did great friends.

Camilla says she passed the time reading and learning to paint. "I couldn’t really go anywhere," she said.

As she approaches her 70th birthday in July, Camilla spoke about her relationship with the Prince of Wales and the pressures of marrying into the Royal Family.

She told Mail on Sunday editor Geordie Greig: "Sometimes you get up in the morning and think you can’t do it, and you just have to."

Camilla also says she now takes each day as it comes and does not think about any possible accession and becoming Queen Consort.

If ever she became too uppity, she says, her friends would simply tell her: "Pull yourself together! Don’t be so bloody grand!"

She also speaks affectionately about her late brother Mark Shand who died in 2014 after a fall in New York.

"Mark always wanted something. When I heard his voice on the phone saying 'Camillsy', I knew immediately that he wanted something. But God, I miss him," she said.

In the UK she relaxes by spending time in her own home, Ray Mill in Wiltshire, where she scrambles breakfast eggs on her Aga, and entertains her five grandchildren.

She is a fan of Nordic noir crime shows on television and reads Robert Harris novels and books from the Booker Prize list. She is also devoted to her Jack Russells Beth and Bluebell.